Appraisal season is always interesting. Whether you're the appraiser or the appraisee, everyone seems to dread them. Why?
As Pfeffer and Sutton point out1, the problem is that, just as with driving, we all believe we're above average performers in the workplace. The appraisal is when our comforting self-delusion comes up against the brick wall of objective fact or, more controversially, a manager's judgement.
Joel Spolsky argues powerfully that appraisals or performance reviews can only do harm in terms of staff morale and motivation:
"Most people think that they do pretty good work (even if they don't).
It's just a little trick our minds play on us to keep life bearable. So
if everybody thinks they do good work, and the reviews are merely correct (which is not very easy to achieve), then most people will be disappointed by their reviews. The cost of this in morale is hard to understate."
Frankly, it's hard to disagree with this assessment. Perhaps it's time to ditch performance reviews—what do you think?
Joel also slams incentive pay, seeing it as patronising and ineffective. This is probably more controversial, but also has some evidence to support it. Pfeffer and Sutton argue that individual incentives only work when performance can be objectively assessed and when results can be linked very directly to individual effort. Neither of those criteria is often met in practice.
1. Pfeffer, J. & Sutton, R.I. "Hard Facts, dangerous half-truths and total nonsense"